Drums are well known musical instruments comprising a drumhead that is tightly stretched over one or both ends of a drum body. The drummer strikes or beats the end of a drumstick against the drumhead to produce the well known percussion sound of a drum. In a typical set of drums, there are two major types of drums, i.e. a snare drum and a bass drum, which are similar but vary in size. A drummer typically uses a handheld drumstick to play the snare drum and uses a foot pedal to impact a separate drumstick against the bass drum. Often, a drum set will also include a set of cymbals that are played using the same hand held drumsticks used to play the snare drum.
The handheld drumsticks conventionally used by drummers are also well known. They typically comprise a solid wooden body having an elongated shape. The drumstick includes a tapered tip section having an enlarged tip member which impacts against the drumhead. The drumstick body extends away from the tip section to terminate in a second end that is spaced away from the tip section by some distance, e.g. 16 inches or so. The drummer can hold and move the drumstick by gripping the drumstick body adjacent the second end thereof.
Maracas are also well known musical instruments that are sometimes played by drummers. These instruments typically comprise a hollow gourd or ball having a number of pellets or beads contained therein and including an outwardly extending handle. The drummer can grip the maraca handle and shake the maraca gourd to produce a distinctive rattle sound. In most cases, separate maracas are provided so that the drummer has to lay down one or both of his drumsticks to pick up and play the maracas. In addition to requiring the drummer to purchase and have on hand a set of maracas, the act of playing the maracas while drumming is difficult to do.
Various suggestions have been made to add the rattle type sound of a maraca to a drumstick. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,466,554 to Mossey discloses a generally conventional wooden drumstick that is inserted through a maraca gourd so that the maraca gourd is, in effect, a part of the drumstick. U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,250 to Beyer discloses a drumstick made of a hollow, plastic cylindrical tube in which a plurality of loose pellets are contained. A tip is to be releasably joined to one end of the tube. The tube itself forms the handle portion of the drumstick to allow the user to grip and hold the drumstick. The loose pellets inside the drumstick are free to move around and produce the distinctive maraca type rattle sound.
Both of the devices noted above attempt to provide a drumstick in which some means for producing a maraca type rattle sound is contained on or in the drumstick itself. Thus, the drummer can produce the rattle sound while simultaneously using the drumstick to play the drums. It is not necessary to have a separate maraca type instrument, or to put down the drumstick to pick up and play the maraca.
However, both of the drumsticks noted above have various disadvantages. Neither one of them provides a drumstick that is similar in shape, weight or feel to the drumsticks conventionally used by a drummer. For example, the patent to Mossey is basically a drumstick which is stuck through a maraca gourd. Thus, the Mossey drumstick has a non-uniform appearance with a big bulge in the middle formed by the gourd. In addition, the Mossey drumstick is much heavier than a conventional drumstick since all the weight of the maraca gourd and the pellets are added to the normal weight of the drumstick.
The drumstick shown in the Beyer patent comprises a plastic tube in which the pellets are free to move through the length of the tube with a separate drum tip screwed onto one end of the tube. Again, this construction does not look like a conventional drumstick, does not feel like a conventional drumstick, and does not have the same weight as a conventional drumstick. In addition, because the user grips the drumstick simply by gripping and holding the plastic tube, the rattle sound produced by the drumstick will be somewhat dampened or muffled by the user's hand. This obviously detracts from the rattle sound that is supposed to be produced by the pellets in the first place.